I love Roma

Bonjorno Rome!

Rome is in its 8th century and after driving 10 hours we hopped straight off the bus in the its to start sight seeing. We started with a monument called the Monumento Nationazale a Vittorio Emanuele. A Roman emperor wanted a monument to represent himself instead of a statue! And it was massive! You can see it pictured with all the columns lining the outside and huge wrought iron gates.

Next up we visited the coloseum which is named after an emperor called Coloseo. It was built by 40,000 slaves and the detail of the Coloseum is so unbelievable considering they had no experience or even technology to construct such a massive arena. It was used for entertainment for everyone in Rome and would have free food and entry. The coloseum held gladiator fights, animal fights, and simulated battleship fights.
There is so much missing it's so hard to imagine all the slayings and lives that were spared or let die.

When the Roman Catholics took over they turned the coloseum into a quarry for materials because they didn't want a reminder of all the slayings that happened.

Afterwards we headed to the ruins, which were 2000 years old. Rome has been built over and over again and you can see the levels of the city through different eras in my photos. There is one particular picture where I am sitting on a bowled down column. They say that the whole city used to be built in marble. Anyway in the background you can see the levels of ruins which show they just built on top of each new city. You can see at the highest building is where Rome is built today.
Whilst we were there, there was a part that was blocked off and was still being uncovered by scientists. These ruins were 2500 years old and it was still being dug up.

The heat that day was pretty hot and we all met back at the meeting place. I was so thirsty I saw 3 other people from my tour drinking from a fountain so I walked over and had a drink. We all turned around and everyone was gone. We literally turned our backs for a minute and had missed at least 45 people leaving. So we were officially lost!

We took our maps and headed on the path that was set for the day and went to our next sight to see - the Spanish Steps.
I've never heard of these before but they're pretty steep so we climbed the top and got a good view of the city streets. If we had stuck with our tour guide, I could of told you more!

Next place was the Trevi Fountain! This is my most favorite icon in Europe. Standing in the middle is a statue of Neptune. I took a photo of myself making a wish and throwing a coin in. You can drink from the fountain because the water flows from the mountains. Back in the day the Romans first invented viaducts which are still used today, 2000 years later for Romes water flow.

After standing in awe at the fountain we stopped for a pizza, just a couple lane ways down. Then we started the mission back to the campsite. Which trust me wasn't easy! We made it back and woke in the morning for an early rise to the Vatican City!

We arrived about 7:30am and the cue to get in was enormous! Every 4th Sunday is free entry so you can imagine the crowd it attracts. It didn't take long to get into the Sistine Chapel. Once in, it is one of the most beautiful places I've been to. The walls and ceilings are covered in sculptures and paintings from Michaelangelo. There is so much detail, it would take days to slowly roam around and read all the history behind each painting. While we were there the Pope had a mass in the huge courtyard. And people were singing and praying inside. It's was pretty cool and I have some amazing videos of the music & more of the art work inside. I wanted to spend longer in there but we were in a group and had to get moving. When I was finished I split from the group and posted postcards from the Vatican City's very own post service.

I could go on and on about how cool it was to be surrounded by so much history but I have to get going. We just got to Austria and had to re write this blog very quickly before heading to dinner because the other one deleted. Wish I could fill you all in more as the photos just don't do justice.

Love everyone and  wish you were all here to enjoy this with me!!

CIAO!!
xx